


Episode 13: Skirmish

by fsdfsdfsd



Series: Challenge: Correct the AU as we go along [13]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Abrupt Ending, Action focused, And Failing, Aoi trying to be stoic, Badass Aoi, Battle, Card Games as Weapons, Card Games used for Battle, Gen, Hanoi AU, Hanoi Aoi, Ignis is a Troll, Mostly an Experiment, She has more of Aoi's personality than that of an Idol's, This is not the Blue Angel you are used to
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 17:55:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12259227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fsdfsdfsd/pseuds/fsdfsdfsd
Summary: Aoi finally meets the Ignis, and the two have a digital duel (with only one deck).





	Episode 13: Skirmish

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually written long ago- it was originally my entry for episode 9. Largely an experiment, and my first attempt at writing out something that's been in my head for a loooong time.
> 
> See end notes for commentary on the battle style.

“Hey!”

The Ignis showed itself to Blue Angel just as Revolver had predicted- it went straight for her, with six of SOL Technologies’ auto-bots trailing behind.

“Miss Knight!”

Of course it felt the need to acknowledge her, as a heads up or just to provoke her. Probably both. “IHaveSomeStalkers-WouldYouPleaseHelpDefendThisPoorAIDamsel!”

Six enemies- six dispensable, one objective. Six airborne, one stuck to wall climbing. If she timed this right, she could achieve both objectives.

In one move Blue Angel manifested her whip and drew a hand of cards. She had just enough time to activate a Trickstar Narkiss before they got within range.

_Battle. Target Selected._

With her whip, Blue Angel lashed one of the drones ( _Bind_ ) and swung it into the drone nearest to it. As she moved, her Narkiss destroyed another drone.

In a duel this would take out only one attacker, but the beauty of Solid Vision was that the rules were more advice than binding. Blue Angel’s influence on the Vrains let her dictate more than Solid Vision would have in real life, so her Narkiss’s blow send the drone spinning into its neighbor.

_Turn end._

Four down, and the last drone had changed course- it was heading straight for her. To her left, the Ignis was sneaking past her; getting away.

The remaining drones were closing in too fast, the time it would take Aoi to build momentum in the right direction wasn’t worth it. Perhaps if she- but using her deck had its advantages.

Blue Angel summoned Trickstar Candina, and then special summoned Trickstar Lilybell while she instructed her whip to retract.

_Battle. Target Selected._

As the last two drones were destroyed, Blue Angel turned her attention to the Ignis.

_Trap activated. Opponent Selected._

Each monster struck its own pose, and Aoi whispered “Solar Ray” as yellow lasers hit the Ignis directly, momentarily halting it.

“AUGH!”

Six hundred damage per LIGHT monster, three LIGHT monsters on her field. With Solid Vision (and Aoi’s digital parody of it) damage couldn’t be measured out in numbers so easily, but the Ignis wasn’t fragile.

“Owowow…” If that blast halted the Ignis, either it’s user-friendliness protocols were detrimental to its purpose, or it deliberately gave away its position.

Whatever, it gave her the time she needed.

 _Turn end. Effects. Activate Spell._ **Double Summon**

Blue Angel summoned Trickstar Narkiss and Trickstar Lycoris. For now she didn’t need them to attack head-on, instead the four monsters surrounded the Ignis’ position. This wasn’t the most secure way to trap a target, but her whip couldn’t grab something partially embedded in the ground.

The eye widened briefly and then quivered a little. “Oh, wow, you don’t mess around, do you?”

As it spoke, something around the AI began to change. If she could only rely on her regular five senses, Blue Angel wouldn’t have noticed any change. On the Vrains, her senses went beyond that.

_Battle. Target Selected._

She chose Candina to attack.

“Woah! You- you really don’t mess around.”

Whatever it was trying to do, it hadn’t slowed down with the damage. In fact, it was almost done.

_Turn end._

Taking a risk, Blue Angel began to walk towards her target. If it wanted her siblings it would want her, and so long as she was fast enough…

Whatever its learning capabilities might have been, the Ignis certainly didn’t learn when to shut up. “Heh, I guess you’re supposed to be ‘the serious one,’ eh? The first real challenge, the one who makes me take things seriously?”

She was standing right in front of it when the AI stopped its internal activity.

_Activate Spell._

Fortunately, her hunch was right- the Ignis was still trying to turn the tables on her. **Harpie’s Feather Duster** brushed away whatever trap it had been planting.

The eye went lax as it said, “That is such a cliché- Eh?” Now- when it’s behavioral mimicry was taking over. “Where did-”

Arm outstretched, Blue Angel launched herself at the Ignis. Her hand closed over the eye and she could feel the paths the light of human souls took as they sunk into Cyberspace around her. Aoi had more than enough power to hold the Ignis with her own strength, but by bending the leylines into a cage she was preventing it from using that same energy to escape.

“Waah!” The Ignis wailed as it pushed against Blue Angel’s makeshift cage with its own limited reach. The strength of its pushes were weak compared to what the others had told her, Blue Angel assumed it was merely testing the cage and looking for weak spots.

So she punched the AI with her unoccupied hand. Anything could be distracted with a new black eye, which was doubly true when the injury encompassed the entire body. It was stupid for Kogami to make the Ignis with pain receptors, if helpful for her.

_Turn End._

Blue Angel drew another card while the eye watered and rolled.

“Owowow. Hey, miss, are you still doing that?”

 _Activate Spell._ **Dark Room of Nightmare.**

“This isn’t a duel- but you’re using your deck very effectively.”

To play a card with any real force behind it Blue Angel had to split her attention between maintaining her grip and lending power to the spell. Drawing energy from her surroundings through the cage helped with multitasking.

The Ignis just kept talking. “Ahh, that’s right- you can bend the Vrains, can’t you? You, that boy I met, and that other girl. You know, they mostly used it for simple stuff, like getting through a wall to get to me. But of course, all duel monsters are just the manifestation of energy summoned from other planes.”

_Battle. Target Selected._

Lycoris moved around her mistress for the blow, but the real power was in the shadows that lingered where the blow landed and tightened on the wounds.

That would be enough damage.

Reaching out, she felt the Vrains around her, energy expanding past herself and the Ignis. The very fabric of this world itself was malleable to those who had enough strength.

The spell had no card, no power but her own. Her presence spread out as far as she could reach, Aoi only had to tug and the ground turned to water.

Coming back to herself, her monsters were now above and below the Ignis like corners of an invisible box. The eyeball clung to a small piece of gravel that bobbed underwater, Blue Angel and her summons floating with wings that worked just as well in the new terrain.

The AI’s gaze was flitting about almost nervously. “Yeah, this is closer to what the others did. Only, they didn’t use the terrain changes the same way you did.”

Blue Angel reached out to the Ignis, focusing around it and began building a cage about it’s presence.

The eye stopped, narrowed at her, and in a voice at least a full octave deeper said, “Too bad for you I can swim.”

She’d ignored the machine’s babbling for so long, she didn’t process those words until it lashed out with its own presence and snapped her cage in half. It sped out and away from her too fast to be stopped. It swam down, small tendrils she didn’t know it had propelling it like an octopus.

Blue Angel cursed her stupidity, for believing the eye it showed on the surface made up the entire being. She had the water and her cards to help as she swam after it, but even then something told her it wouldn’t be enough.

**Author's Note:**

> This episode was a recap, so I took it as a chance to do whatever I wanted with it. Originally this was my work for Episode 9, but I wound up running out of time, getting stressed, writing up the current entry for Episode 9 and pushing this work to Episode 13. Hence why it's up so early.
> 
> The basic idea behind this fic is something that was introduced in ARC-V, but then dropped and forgotten; the concept of using Duel Monsters not just as a card game, but as supplements for a physical battle. We had Yuya's hippos blocking doors, trampoline cats providing a soft landing, Kurosaki riding on his birds, and then suddenly all the monster-human interactions stopped. It was possible thanks to solid vision, but I see no reason a digital world can't be hacked to produce similar effects.
> 
> So I came up with a set of rules for how one could potentially use Duel Monsters outside of a duel- and I will admit it relies heavily on the concept of souls and magic being inherently tied to the game. Instead of losing lifepoints, a target gets physical damage with varying degrees of force behind the attack corresponding to the monsters attack points. Defensive monsters will physically block their summoner's body from damage. Instead of passing moves back and forth between duelists, you get your next turn whenever your "inner magic stores" replenish- which varies from person to person depending on their magical strength and potential. I can give more information on this if anybody wants it- just contact me.
> 
> When Blue Angel is in VRAINS, she has about 2-4 seconds between ending one turn and her energy replenishing to the point where she can have another turn- which, in my world, is EXTREMELY OP. Most people need, on average, 1-4 minutes to be able to take another turn. Aoi is only this powerful in VRAINS, and only because of her supernatural/cyborg abilities. Likewise, I gave Blue Angel some abilities similar to what Revolver shows- reshaping the terrain of VRAINS, plus some of my interpretations of some of his unexplained abilities.
> 
>  
> 
> I AM NOW LOOKING FOR A BETA READER. PLEASE COMMENT BELOW OR CONTACT ME ON TUMBLR IF YOU'RE INTERESTED:  
> http://bluebeirry.tumblr.com/


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